April 20, 2023

APRIL CEO FIBER UPDATE

I wanted to take this opportunity to share another exciting update on our Cookson Hills Connect fiber internet and phone services project. I want to again, say “Thank You” for trusting us to provide fiber to your homes and businesses! The support from you, our members, continues to be overwhelming. Your success stories and excitement help keep our team motivated to provide services to each member as soon as possible. Your stories on how fiber impacts your daily lives also serve as a humble reminder of the important role this project plays for rural Oklahomans.

We are thrilled to announce that Phase 1 of the project is now complete! As we look back on 2022, and the first quarter of 2023, we are proud of the many ways our rural communities have grown and changed because of our cooperative’s continued commitment to delivering reliable and affordable high-speed internet and telephone services.

You know by now the many ways fiber transforms daily life, with a world of possibilities at your fingertips for online learning; efficient working from home; convenient telemedicine; endless streaming, gaming, and entertainment options; and face-to-face real-time connections to family and friends.

I’m pleased to let you know that over the past year, we have made great progress in bringing Cookson Hill Connect phone systems and fiber internet services to our communities. As of April 2023, Cookson Hills Connect is now serving over 3,900 homes and businesses throughout our service territory in portions of Sequoyah, Haskell, and Muskogee counties.

We are proud of all that we’ve accomplished so far:

• Over 1,400 total miles of fiber line built
• Over 3,900 customers connected
• 7 fiber huts installed that light the fiber for our communities
• 8 fiber subsidiary employees hired

With Phase 1 now complete, Phase 2 of the project is well underway with mainline fiber construction expected to be completed soon, and service installations now taking place in homes and businesses in multiple zones. We will continue working hard to open the remaining zones as soon as possible until all of our members are connected.

As part of our communications, we wanted to provide the following information as an outline of our continuing work for Phase 2 of the fiber project. This schedule is an estimate and is only intended to provide the projected outline for the coming months based on the most current assessment of our project. This schedule and the order of construction are subject to change as the project continues.

Tenkiller Substation: Feeder 2 from our Tenkiller Substation is now complete, and installations are underway. With the opening of Feeder 2, our work on the Tenkiller Substation zone is now complete. If you are on the Tenkiller Substation and do not have our services, please call 800-328-2368 to schedule an installation appointment.

Stigler Substation: The make-ready construction phase is complete for all feeders, and the first installations are now taking place on Feeder 1. If you are on the Stigler Substation Feeder 1 and do not have an installation appointment yet, please call us at 800-328-2368. Feeders 2, 3, and 4 are expected to be available for installations in the coming weeks.

Enterprise Substation: Mainline fiber construction is expected to be completed on Feeders 1, 2, and 3 in the second quarter of 2023 with installations for those feeders projected to begin early in the third quarter of 2023.

Keota Substation: Mainline construction is expected to begin early in the second quarter of 2023 and be completed sometime early in the fourth quarter of 2023. Installations are projected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Make-ready construction is complete for Marble City, Humphrey, and Porum Substations, with mainline fiber construction beginning soon and installations to follow.

Our sole reason for offering telephone and high-speed internet services through Cookson Hills Connect is to meet the needs of members like you. We are working as quickly as possible to reach all our members with telephone and world-class fiber internet to provide faster, more reliable, and more affordable options to stay connected online.

Telephone services are available starting at $29.95 a month and fiber-fast internet packages start as low as $54.95 a month for speeds of up to 100 Mbps. We also offer a 250 Mbps option for $74.95 a month, and our fastest package with Gigabit speed is available for only $84.95 per month. Maybe the most exciting part is that our internet services all feature symmetrical uploading and downloading speeds – with no contracts, no data caps, and no throttling back on speed!

As you can see on our Cookson Hills Connect Facebook page, we are listing substations and feeders to reference where the fiber project work is taking place. Every Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative member can find which substation and feeder provide their electricity by looking at their electric bill. This will help you better determine when service becomes available at your specific location. We will be sending an email and a postcard to each member with a notification when fiber installation to your home is available. These notifications will have instructions on how to schedule your installation service, so please be watching for these communications.

Feel free to reach out to us at any time with questions or concerns:

You can visit our website at www.cooksonhillsconnect.com or give us a call at 1-800-328-2368, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative and Cookson Hills Connect are committed to the Oklahoma communities we serve. We appreciate your patience as we continue our broadband journey and look forward to connecting thousands more customers in 2023.

    Best wishes!

    Juli Orme
    General Manager/CEO
    Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative and Cookson Hills Connect

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